Good way to work on sweeps for marching tenors?

Question:I need help with sweeps mainly
and also the transitions between drum 3 and 4 on quick 16th notes
thanks!!!

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: I need help with sweeps mainly
and also the transitions between drum 3 and 4 on quick 16th notes
thanks!!!

Oh yeah...sweeps are fun.

You should have some sort of "double-beat" exercise that you already know. Something along the lines of "one-e-a two-and-a e-and four-and"...etc.

Basically, you can take this and turn it into a sweep exercise by coming up with your own split patter. Using the rhythm above, you might play "1-3-1 3-1-3 1-3 1-3 2-4-2 4-2-4 2-4 2-4"...etc. These would be "outside sweeps", because your hand travels from the inside drum to the outside drum. The next time through the pattern, you would play "inside sweeps", from 3 to 1 with the right hand and from 4 to 2 with the left hand. I hope this description works for you, if not let me know and perhaps I can clarify.

As far as transitioning from 3-4 quickly, this is kind of tricky. In my marching band days, whenever I saw a split like this (like two 16th notes on drum 3, then two 16th notes on drum 4) it was in a stock part that was probably written by some wind player who has no idea how tenors are set up and what makes for a logical split. Also, it would usually specify the sticking as "RLRL". This would seem perfectly logical to a wind player, but you and I know that to play rhythm/split smoothly is almost impossible. Whenever you encounter this, just rewrite the sticking and play it as "RRLL". If you ever have four 16ths on drum 3 and then four 16ths on drum 4 ( another common split in stock charts), you can play paradiddles: "RLRR LRLL". Much easier, right?

If you ever come across something that seems completely illogical and needlessly difficult, you should first ask your percussion instructor about it, especially if he/she wrote it. Many times, (and as a percussion instructor, I speak from personal experience here), he will admit to making an error and will fix it. If you have no instructor or he/she is not present, just feel free to rewrite the sticking to make it more comfortable (make sure the rest of the tenor line knows this!) until you can ask your instructor about it.

Good luck, and happy drumming!